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Monday, August 31, 2015

Thankfully, AutoGuide.com‘s
spy photographers have caught the new Kia Sportage
driving on public roadways fully exposed, giving us a better look ahead of the
vehicle’s public debut at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. Sporting a whole new
bold look, the Sportage
is designed by Kia’s European studio in Frankfurt, Germany, with input from the
automaker’s Korean and U.S. design centers. It’s been heavily inspired by the
Provo concept, especially at the rear of the crossover with angular tail lights
and chrome accents.

The front headlights are no
longer integrated with the Sportage’s
front grille, which has also been updated to be wider and lower, giving the
front end a more prominent and powerful appearance.

More details on the 2017 Kia Sportage will be revealed when
it officially bows in September at the Frankfurt Motor Show, including
powertrain options and specifications. For now, expect a 1.6-liter turbo
four-cylinder engine under the hood mated to a dual-clutch transmission from
the current Hyundai Tucson.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

It’s rare for a new arrival
to spring a surprise on me. Usually, what we get is what I know, from the
Suzuki Celerio through to the Ferrari 488. So I was expecting the Kia Sorento to be big and boring, well priced
and well backed, with most of its ‘stuff’ carried over from the Hyundai Santa
Fe that fills exactly the same slot in the blue team from South Korea.

But it’s not. It’s a
surprise. And a very nice one.

The Sorento is good looking
and refined, very nicely finished, great value, and spun from the Kia Carnival
of the red team instead of the Santa Fe.

In short, it’s a winner. And
that’s something that’s also reflected in the best-yet ANCAP safety score for
an SUV and the third best rating overall.

Avis sprang the tagline
because it was a perennial number two behind Hertz in the rental company
business, just as Kia
is number two behind Hyundai.

So Kia is trying harder, in
everything from the body design work by Peter Schreyer to the seven-year
warranty that leads the car business in Australia.

Customers are now getting
the benefits, as I discover during a week with the Sorento. For a start,
instead of being developed from Hyundai’s SUV platform under the Santa Fe it is
twinned with the Carnival, so the basic building blocks are more car-like.

I’ve already driven the
Santa Fe, but the Kia
equivalent is considerably better looking - not just in the body shaping but
the layout and finish of the cabin. Even the sweep of the windscreen surround,
and how it frames the road ahead, is a massive change and provides a great
view.

It’s also more plush and
refined than the Santa Fe, as well as a range of rivals including the Nissan
Pathfinder, with great suspension and a nicely isolated cabin. Nothing I
encounter goes remotely close to threatening the suspension tuning developed in
Australia by Graeme Gambold.

It’s a full seven-seater and
the Platinum turbodiesel test car also comes with all-wheel drive, although the
two-tonne towing capacity is nothing special. There is a front-drive petrol
model, but a lot of seven-seater buyers are looking for an SUV with a diesel.

Performance is good, economy
is good, and the car sits quietly and comfortably at any legal speed. It also
stops well enough, something I cannot say about the Hyundai Tucson I’ve also
been driving.

There is a system to lock
the four-wheel drive with a 50:50 power split, not that many will be going off
the bitumen and a lot of owners will only take the front-drive version with
petrol power.

The safety equipment is
top-notch, from six airbags to a rear-traffic alert and smart cruise control as
well as lane-keeping assistance, but it’s little things like a full-sized alloy
spare and standard satnav across the range that show the goodness of the Sorento.

The best thing about the
car, among many good things, is the cabin. It’s a cut above anything that’s
come from Kia in the past and is getting close to an Audi from Korea. That’s
reflected in the design work, but also the choice of materials and the way they
go together.

VERDICT

The Sorento is one of the very best
Korean cars yet and one of the very best SUVs I’ve driven this year. It’s more
than qualified for The Tick.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Kia has taken the covers off its next-generation Sportage SUV ahead of its official reveal at the Frankfurt motor show next month.

The South Korean brand has followed up on a teaser issued last week with the first images of the popular mid-sized soft roader, showcasing a sharp new design direction that it claims will forge a familiar look across future models.

It has yet to confirm final mechanical details of the vehicle range, or overall dimensions, but considering it is set to be based on similar underpinnings to the recently-released Hyundai Tucson it is likely to be significantly larger than the current model with a greater focus on interior space.

With the typical hyperbole associated with exterior design releases, Kia says the fourth-generation Sportage's style has the "contrast of smooth and sharp edges found on some fighter jets" which "creates visual harmony out of the tension between sharp, defined feature lines and smooth surfacing".

While the overall design is a more mature look, the most significant change is in the car's face, which features a revised version of the company's trademark pinched 'tiger nose' grille but no longer has the headlamps integrated into the flow - a prominent feature of vehicles such as the Koup and all-new Optima due to arrive later this year. Instead, the Sportage features high-mounted headlamps supported by the brand's signature four spotlight daytime driving lamps in large faux intakes on either side of the lower portion of the bumper.

The overall silhouette of the Sportage is much more refined with its longer front overhang and shorter rear overhang helping to give it a more rakish stance.

More details of the Sportage are expected to be confirmed in the lead-up to the Frankfurt motor show ahead of its anticipated arrival in local showrooms next year.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Kia has announced the wireless charger
for the Soul EV has reached the final stage of development.

Created with the assistance
of Mojo Mobility, the wireless charger was
designed to allow for the transfter of "high power without need for
precise alignment between the charger and the vehicle." Kia says the wireless
charger will make owning an electric vehicle more convenient, which in turn,
could help to increase their appeal and acceptance by consumers. The automaker also noted that wireless chargers could potentially pave
the way for smaller and lighter battery packs.

As part of the final test
phase, Kia will be using a fleet
of five Soul EVs to see how the wireless charger performs in the real world. In order to do this, a team of engineers and
technicians will evaluate the charger's performance, durability and safety.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

About 100 miles north of Los
Angeles International Airport in the Mojave Desert you’ll find Kia’s 4300 acre
test facility. The South
Korean company has been rigorously testing its vehicles here for just over a
decade, with the view to building world-class cars and SUVs.

CarAdvice has been invited
onto the test track surrounded by camouflaged test mules to get an idea of what
goes on behind the wall fences and razor wire.

Photographers camp out in
the desert for weeks on end trying to get a shot of vehicle we’re going to be
standing next to and in some cases driving. Its a rare privilege. We’re not
allowed to photograph anything, so the accompanying images are as basic as you
get – suffice to say, there’s plenty of top-secret testing going on. During our
visit we lose count of the number of prototypes working their way round the
various test tracks.

“The facility was
constructed between February 2003 and December 2004 at a cost of US $58
million,” explains Matt Seare, facility manager VE – California Proving Ground.
It’s a long job title, but Matt has a pretty important job managing the testing
of nearly every new Kia model.

“The Kia Proving Ground has
quickly become a very important part of Kia’s global development,” says JH So
from Kia’s global PR Team. “It
provides not only on-road and off-road testing and assessment facilities, but
also allows colleagues in other areas of development to put materials and components
through the most strenuous conditions due to the climate in Mojave.”

At the immense facility you’ll find ten
separate courses that are used in a variety of ways to torture the vehicles.
They include a garage of different tests all designed to best replicate the
kind of stresses daily driving put on a new vehicle.

The high speed oval is self
explanatory and allows testers to run at set speeds for as long as they like.
There’s a gradual uphill climb that starts at three percent, moves to four
percent and finishes up at a 12 percent gradiant. It mirrors what you might
experience on a long climb up a country road.

The vehicle dynamics area is
especially interesting. It is designed to test the limits of adhesion and the
capabilities of the suspension system at speed, while the Winding Road Test is
like a mini racetrack within the large oval.

The straight stability
surface has been tailored with a visible crown in the centre of the lanes. It’s
cambered surface ensures the tyres pull left and right to test both steering
dynamics and response. The Special Surfaces Test section is also interesting in
that every lane – across six lanes – has a different texture.

“This area is mainly for NVH
and chassis development,” says Seare. “The chassis guys love being able to
closely monitor what is happening across an array of different and challenging
road surfaces.”

The gravel road and off-road
sections aren’t super tough, but they put plenty of twist and torque through
the chassis, while the section Kia engineers call the LA Freeway is an exact
mirror of a section of, you guessed it, LA freeway, that the government closed
down overnight to allow Kia engineers to
measured and take readings of all the various surface imperfections and
replicate them on their own test section.

The durability loop
incorporates different aspects of day-to-day use like a curved block road, a
sharp 16 degree driveway entry, twist ditches, a sine wave, a rail crossing and
even a grit trough where the vehicles plough through a bath that shows them
with gravel, grit and mud. All up, there’s a combined 120 kilometres-worth of
testing road at the facility.

“All vehicles, even the
sports cars, use the off-road test track,” says Seare. “As you experienced, it
isn’t a hardcore off-road track but it is used to assess vehicle durability
over rough surfaces, dust intrusion into the cabin, noise and insulation, that
kind of thing.”

CarAdvice is particularly
interested in the weathering facility, which is new to the complex. Adjacent to
the engineered tests, a brand new Hyundai Genesis has been sitting out in the
elements for two years. “We expose our parts to the UV radiation of the sun,”
says Seare. “We use a special system to accelerate the weathering process and
then measure that against real world measuring of a car just weathering in the
sun.”

This process is applied to
all aspects of a new vehicle including interior parts, door panels, headlights,
clusters, mirrors, bumpers, as well as full vehicle weather.

“It’s a solar measurement
area so we can measure exactly how much solar energy is going into the part,”
says Seare. “Not just the time the part has been sitting in the system.”

The Mojave Desert might not
be as extreme as what we experienced a day earlier in Death Valley, but the
extent to which Kia is now testing it’s global fleet is one aspect of the
brand’s success. We’ve had a window into a part of the vehicle development
process that we rarely see.

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Kia Racing scored a hard-fought victory and notched another podium finish during rounds 13 and 14 of the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) season at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP) in Tooele, Utah, this past weekend. Starting from the pole for round 13 on Saturday, Kia Racing pilot Mark Wilkins, in the No. 38 B.R.A.K.E.S. Optima turbo, battled nose-to-tail with Jack Baldwin's No. 73 Porsche Cayman for most of the thrilling 50-minute contest. Through careful management of tire wear, Wilkins was able to hold off Baldwin to take the checkered flag – the first win of the 2015 season for defending PWC Grand Touring Sport (GTS) class Manufacturer Champion Kia.

"This win was huge for Kia and for Kinetic Motorsports. The Optima has always been fast, but we've been working hard this year with different car setups and race strategy, all in an effort to manage our front tire wear so we have enough traction left at the end of the race to battle with the Porsches, Mustangs and Camaros," said Wilkins, who set a new GTS lap record at MMP during qualifying with a 1:56.620 time and an average speed of 94.090 mph around the three-mile-long circuit. "I'm not sure I could've held Jack (Baldwin) off another lap. I knew he'd be strong at the end of the race like he always is, but we had just enough today to get the Optima back into victory circle where it belongs."

Kia Racing teammate Ben Clucas, in the No. 36 DonorsChoose.org Optima turbo, started Saturday's round 13 alongside Wilkins, making it an all-Kia front row as the GTS field took the green flag. Clucas battled mightily throughout the race and eventually crossed the line in fourth place for a solid top-five result.

Based on fastest laps during round 13, Wilkins and Clucas started Sunday's round 14 from third and fourth, respectively. Clucas' No. 36 DonorsChoose.org Optima turbo got off to a tremendous start and moved up from fourth to second as the 19-car GTS field barreled into turn one. Once there, Clucas made a bold move deep in the braking zone to overtake the leader in turn five. He would lead for 12 laps, but ultimately, the desert heat and abrasive track surface would take their toll on the Optima's front tires, leaving Clucas vulnerable to attack. After a grueling 50 minutes of racing, Clucas out-dragged Baldwin's No. 73 Porsche Cayman by a mere .036 seconds for a photo finish to claim third place – his fourth podium of the season. Wilkins was not far behind, adding another top-five finish to Kia Racing's record.

"I knew our only chance to run up front was to get a good start and try to put some distance between myself and everyone else early in the race, and I got an amazing launch off the line with a run on the outside heading into turn one, so I took the opportunity to pass for the lead and was able to make it stick," said Clucas, who earned the "Best Standing Start" award for round 14. "It's a great result for Kia and for our team, who perhaps exorcised some demons at this track where we haven't had much luck in previous years. I'm happy for Mark, who got the win in round 13 and look forward to Sonoma next weekend."

Just as the factory-backed GTS Optima program enjoyed success at MMP, so too did the Kinetic Motorsports Touring Car A (TCA) Forte Koup privateer program. Current points leader and defending TCA Driver Champion Jason Wolfe swept the weekend in the No. 36 Richard Wolfe Trucking Kia Forte Koup. Wolfe qualified fastest, started on pole for all three races and led each race flag-to-flag, adding to his points lead in the TCA Driver Championship. Kris Wright, pilot of the No. 34 Wright Automotive Kia Forte Koup, scored his first podium of the season with a third-place result in round 13 on Friday. Samantha Tan, driver of the No. 38 Gum Products International (GPI) Kia Forte Koup, also recorded her best finish of the year with a fourth-place result in round 13.

The GTS teams now quickly pack up and head to Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California, for rounds 15 and 16 on August 28-30. The TCA teams have a short break before all the PWC classes converge on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, September 11-13 for their respective season finale events. Tape-delayed televised coverage of the GTS doubleheader weekend at MMP will air on the CBS Sports Network (air date and time TBA).

GTS round 15 at Sonoma Raceway takes place Saturday, August 29, at 4:45 p.m. ET, 1:45 p.m. PT, followed by round 16 on Sunday, August 30, at 11:40 a.m. ET, 8:40 a.m. PT. Live-streamed coverage of all PWC races is available online at www.world-challengetv.com, and race fans can keep up-to-date with the Kia Racing team via the Kia Motors America Facebook and Instagram pages, and on Twitter @Kia.

About Kia Motors America

Kia Motors America (KMA) is the marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea. KMA proudly serves as the "Official Automotive Partner" of the NBA and LPGA and set an all-time annual sales record in 2014, surpassing the 500,000 unit mark for the third consecutive year. KMA offers a complete line of vehicles, including the rear-drive K9001 flagship sedan, Cadenza premium sedan, Sorento CUV, Soul urban passenger vehicle, Soul Electric Vehicle2, Sportage compact CUV, Optima midsize sedan, Optima Hybrid, the Forte compact sedan, Forte5 and Forte Koup, Rio and Rio 5-door subcompacts and the Sedona midsize multi-purpose vehicle, through a network of more than 765 dealers across the United States. Kia's U.S. manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia, builds the Optima* and Sorento* and is responsible for the creation of more than 15,000 plant and supplier jobs.